The general area of application of the present invention is the automation of postal operations, and specifically, automatic sweeping and traying of accumulated mail stacks that are formed at output stackers in USPS letter mail sorters employing either Optical Character Readers (OCR) or Bar Code Readers (BCR). The sweeping operation involves the vertical transfer of a vertical mail stack from the stacking platform (at a sortation station) into a USPS "MM" (managed mail) tray located directly below. Presently this sweeping operation is performed manually.
An additional application of this invention is the automatic stacking and traying of letter mail. This automatic application also reduces manual tasks with resulting economies. The mail output of automatic label placement machines such as the Xerox Cheshire Mod Series machines consists of a continuous stream of shingled (overlapping) mail, laying horizontally and moving width-wise (short dimension). Presently this output is placed on a flat belt conveyor, and removed manually. The mail is then placed, faced, in a standard USPS MM tray.